When the two ancient civilizations of Chinese opera and Greek theater meet in the theater, what kind of sparks will be sparked? The Yue opera version of "Oedipus King" performed by the famous Chinese theater director and playwright Li Liuyi and the famous Yue opera performance artist Mao Weitao may provide a reference answer.
On September 30th, the 2021 Chinese Year of Greek Culture and Tourism was held at the Butterfly Theater in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, where a number of artists from China and Greece held a dialogue on the wonderful encounter between Chinese opera and Greek drama in the theater.
The scene of the "Zhaojian Sino-Greek Drama Dialogue" event of the 2021 Chinese-Greek Year of Culture and Tourism
A wonderful encounter between Chinese opera and Greek drama
The guest of this dialogue, Luo Jinlin, former vice president of the Central Academy of Drama and an expert in Chinese Greek theater culture, is the son of Luo Niansheng, a Chinese Greek cultural scholar with world reputation. Under the influence of his father, Luo Jinlin also engaged in drama-related work. He has repeatedly transplanted ancient Greek tragedies with traditional Chinese opera and staged them in many countries around the world.
At the scene, he shared his many years of experience in Greek theater work, in his view, Chinese opera has the aesthetic characteristics of virtuality, symbolism and freehand, and Greek drama has a solemn, concise and shocking sense of power and beauty, these two different ancient dramas have differences and similarities. So he has also been thinking about how to merge these two different "beauty".
Luo Jinlin, former vice president of the Central Academy of Drama and an expert in Chinese Greek theater culture
"How to integrate, let me give you an example, just like everyone drinks coffee and adds milk, it is you who have me, I have you." 」 Luo Jinlin further explained that the so-called integration is not a simple combination of Chinese opera and Greek drama, but a mutual reference, and the strengths of the two dramas can be integrated to create a greater tension.
Lydia Konyorzu is a famous Greek national treasure artist who has been invited to China many times. During her exchange at the Shanghai Theater Academy, she also directed the performance of the school's third-year students in the famous Greek tragedy writer Euripides's "Alcutis". Although it is a tragic story of ancient Greece, "in order to narrow the distance between Chinese students, we deliberately set the age of the story to the Republic of China period, and the costumes in the play were also designed by the students themselves." ”
At the scene, she also showed the director's notes at that time through video, because she did not understand Chinese, she used pinyin to mark the actors' lines to help herself better guide the students. "We carefully polish every line in the hope that students can truly understand and digest ancient Greek drama."
It was a happy time that Lydia Konyorzu will never forget, and she said emotionally: "Ancient Greek drama was written not for the Greeks, but for the world, and everyone can find their own resonance in it." ”
Live audience
Mao Weitao joined hands with Li Liuyi to create a Yue opera version of "Oedipus King"
A video clip of the Yue opera version of "Oedipus King" was also played, which was created by the famous Chinese theater director and playwright Li Liuyi in collaboration with the famous Yue opera performance artist Mao Weitao, in which Mao Weitao played the Oedipus King. On the "stage" of the ruins of liangzhu ancient city, a piece of ancient Greek drama was "shockingly" pushed in front of the audience in the singing voice and recitation of Yue opera.
Stills from the Yue opera version of Oedipus The King
"It's a tribute to ancient Greek civilization, and it's a promise I made to director Li Liuyi more than 20 years ago, and the two of us agreed to work together in a small theater." Mao Weitao said that due to the tight time, only two acts of drama were arranged, but for Yue opera, this is not a kind of exploration.
Mao Weitao shared a performance experience that had never been experienced before in this play. In traditional Yue opera performances, boots are a sign and symbol of male identity. In the first act of the Yue opera version of "Oedipus King", director Li Liuyi asked Mao Weitao to wear boots because the clothes she wore were different from traditional Yue opera, just a shirt, no water sleeves, no fans, and hoped that she could use the boots as a prop to find a feeling for the character of "Oedipus".
Famous Yue opera performance artist Mao Weitao
In the second act, director Li Liuyi asked her to take off her boots to complete the performance. "This is the first time in my 42 years of Acting in Yue Opera that I have stood barefoot on stage." Mao Weitao said that later she understood the director's intentions. "When I took off my boots, in fact, after Oedipus had stabbed himself in the eye, at that moment, I suddenly felt that my armor had been removed, and all the restraints of the schoolgirls on my body were gone." Mao Weitao said that this experience, which she had never had before, brought her closer to Oedipus's current state of confusion and questioning.
Li Liuyi, a famous Chinese theater director and playwright
Li Liuyi believes that through this attempt, it proves that the expression of Yue opera is universal, and it can also perform tragedy. In his view, the Yue opera version of "Oedipus King" is not a fusion of a repertoire, but a fusion of two cultures, and a process of Yue opera and "Oedipus" moving to the contemporary era.
(All pictures in this article are provided by Hangzhou Butterfly Theatre)